"DIY" Air Bags

[CrashTestDummy]

Hello everyone. I need to film a scene for a short movie where the actor jumps from the roof of a small building. I don't have a large budget, and I don't have access to commercial air bags. The roof is somewhere between 15-20 feet, so crash mats or whatever they're called are out of the question. I was thinking of how I would create a safe landing, and I figured that a homemade airbag might be possible. I don't know a whole lot about how tall or "deep" it would have to be for that height, but I thought that I could use heavy duty tarps for constructing the actual bag/box shape. I don't know how well this would hold up; the actual bag material/seam strength is what I'm concerned about. If this idea won't work, is there any other ways I could go about doing this stunt? Thanks in advance.

[Grant]

Hmmm I think a good old fashion crash pit of stacked and empty cardboard boxes covered and secured by a tarp may be an easier way to go. Your airbag would have to hold a fair pressure and withstand multiple landings if need be.

[CrashTestDummy]

I've never done any falls that require mats or anything so I'm not familiar with the stacked boxes approach. does there need to be a separator between each layer of boxes, or do you just simply stack them next to each other and strap a tarp over the top to keep them aligned? I thought I read before that very thin sheets of plywood were put between each layer(excluding the top layer) so that the layers collapsed uniformly or something. Also, I'm assuming that the boxes need to be the same dimensions(?) so where would you suggest that I get that many boxes? I'm not trying to sound critical; I'd just rather not leap from a rooftop without getting everything straight.

[Grant]

Basically you just stack layers upon each other much like a brick wall approach. You could use the plywood but from your height I doubt it will be much help. Uniform size boxes are preferred to even out the whole target area (usually boxes all come from the 1 source). People have jumped from incredible heights using such approach. Again it somes to to experimentation, a larger enough target areas (width & height) and an actor trained to land.

[youngfilmmaker]

You could fake it... http://www.nccinema.ch/efx02.html


or you can lay down on the ground a whole bunch of mattresses.